Little things often are much more infuriating than big things. For example, the fact that one presidential candidate has trouble with the definition of the word “truth” and the other has trouble with its spelling, is only mildly annoying. You want to talk annoying? Here are two relatively minor workplace gripes that really push me over the edge. Maybe they irk you, too.
First, there’s phone number slurring. It’s bad enough you can no longer tell a caller’s location by area code. What was once greater Los Angeles and 213 is now 818 and 310 and who knows how many others. The 312 that stretched from the Indiana border to Wisconsin and covered all of greater Chicagoland is now a hodge-podge of different area codes, none having a “1” or a “0” in the middle digit. And if 305 meant palm trees, now it only means Miami: Fort Lauderdale is 954 and all the communities in Palm Beach County – which also had been 407 for a while – are now 561. Really memorable!
So on top of this area code profusion and the difficulty of mentally connecting an area code to a particular part of the country, we encounter the phenomenon of phone number slurring on voice mails. Here’s an example. You dial in to receive your messages and you hear:
“Hi, this is Sue. Please call me back at fitwoaitnineohthreesixonethreeait.”
The 10 digits are slurred into one incomprehensible sound bite. Let me tell you, that truly bites. Since when do people give numbers without a pause after the area code? What about a pause after the exchange, or a vocal break up of the last four digits?
Callers rarely say the last four digits as a couplet – say, sixty- one thirty-eight instead of six-one-three-eight. Just saying the numbers slowly and distinctly would help the callee remember the ten digits. But fuhgetaboutit. Self-absorbed callers assume you will remember the hastily blurted out number as easily as he or she does.
WELL, I DON’T!!!
And I don’t like having to replay your message three or four times to figure out what the number is. So slow down. Be considerate. And do what they do in radio commercials – repeat the number.
Second. The name game. Other than Cher, Madonna and Prince, there aren’t many of us with just one name. So why is it that so many people answer their phones and leave messages using only their first name?
I know they want to sound friendly. But phone talk is different from “Hi, I’m Paul and I’ll be your waiter tonight.” If you need Paul, you just look up from the table and discretely signal. If you need to reach the Sue or Joe or Bobby who left you a message, you sound like a moron – and often waste hours – trying to find the right Bobby at a $4 billion corporation that has fired all its receptionist/operators.
USE YOUR LAST NAME!!
Believe me, saying you’re Bobby Smith is not too formal, too stiff or too old-fashioned. It simply makes sense.
There, now I feel better.
Article – Copyright 2000 Evan Cooper. Syndicated by ParadigmTSA
